"Madame George" was recorded during the first Astral Weeks session that took place on 25 September 1968, at Century Sound Studios in New York City with Lewis Merenstein as producer.
The character of Madame George is considered by many to be a drag queen, although Morrison himself denied this in a Rolling Stone interview.
"[3] Van Morrison, speaking to biographer Ritchie Yorke about the writing and meaning of the song, said in part: "Madame George" was recorded live.
Comedian Frankie Boyle suggested it was a song about Van Morrison's mother in a video on Instagram.
This is suggested by the line "With a childlike vision leaping into view Clicking, clacking of the high heeled shoe."
Possibly one of the most compassionate pieces of music ever made, it asks us, no, arranges that we see the plight of what I'll be brutal and call a lovelorn drag queen with such intense empathy that when the singer hurts him, we do too."
Artist Mark Wallinger said of "Madame George": "The sense of desire and loss expressed in this song is so sad because it dares one to try to hear it again as if for the first time.
"[6] In 1974, after he had recorded eight albums, Morrison told Ritchie Yorke when he asked him what he considered his finest single track and the one that he enjoyed the most that it was: "Definitely 'Madame George', definitely.
David Gray pays tribute to the song on the final track of his album White Ladder, with his cover version of the Soft Cell song, "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye", which ends similarly and even borrows lyrics "Through the rain, hail, sleet and snow, say goodbye.
In David A. Stewart and the Spiritual Cowboy's song "Out of Reach", from the album Honest, there is a line that goes: "Madame George got played today, she almost forgot she could feel that way".